By Ed Muniz- Photos By Morgan Gonzales
**Additional Photos are available for purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p924136600**
Schaumburg’s Olympic Park was the site of the Seminole Sports “Summer Sizzler” tournament on June 23-25.
This featured softball and baseball teams competing in various age groups from 18-Under to 8- Under.
The Five-field sports complex was an ideal setting to watch simultaneous games in each sport with the occasional “Heads Up” on foul balls.
Among the teams competing were the 8-Under Northlake Knights and the LaGrange Highlands Hurricane in baseball.
For the Knights, this would be their opening game of the tourney, while the Hurricanes had dropped an earlier game in the day and were looking even up on their record.
The Knights came out to a blistering assault crossing the plate several times, but the later innings went dry while the Hurricanes chipped away and eventually came all the way back for the 8-7 victory.
“No Energy the first three innings, we were flat, and the kids looked a little tired to start the game after playing this morning,” said Canes’ Coach Mike Dahl. “We got a couple hits and turned that into a couple more hits and got the energy going and put something together.”
“We preach development and fun and fundamentals so for them to walk away with one win today versus two losses is huge for them and their mindset. John (Nitti) was a bulldog for us, you got to throw strikes at this level, and he was able to do that for us. He is full of confidence.”
The Knights didn’t waste any time in their first at-bats, plating two runs. Grayson Piscitelli and Matteo Huritado scored on Adrian Constellan’s single. Piscitelli also singled earlier in the inning.
The Hurricanes’ Emmett Dahl started on the mound, but struggled to find his rhythm and was relieved in the second by Cole Dudash. Dahl would later play a big role in sealing the win later in the game.
The Hurricanes couldn’t get started against Knights starter Johnny Guerrero. In his two-inning stint he gave up just one hit and struck out three allowing next to nothing to the Canes.
The Knights second inning proved to be quite fruitful, scoring five runs on three hits which included a 3-run home run by Piscitelli, a triple by Michael Biedziek and a single by Camden Kazmierczek.
Down 7-0, the Hurricanes just seemed lack-lustered batting and couldn’t put together hits in inning two with Guerrero striking out two of the four Canes he faced.
Dudash got into a little trouble in the top of the third but managed to get out of a bases loaded situation to keep the Knights from adding to their lead.
Mirroring his teammate Guerrero, Piscitelli struck out two of the four Canes he faced to end the third stanza, maintaining a 7-run lead and keeping the Canes scoreless with half the game done.
Things were about to change dramatically.
A confident John Nitti took to the mound for the Hurricanes and proceeded to stifle the Knights the next three innings. In his first two inning pitching, Nitti struck out 5 of 6 batters, while his teammates including himself, found the pitching more to their liking.
The Hurricanes crossed home five times during their fourth at-bats, closing the Knights lead to 7-5 after four innings.
A double by Gus Burgland kick-started the comeback after an out. Followed by a single from Marty Fegan. After a strikeout, a Knights fielding error helped continue the Canes inning and they made the most of it when Nitti drove in three runs with his triple and scored when Ben Freimuth added to the hit parade with a single of his own.
The Hurricanes were now more enthused about the game with momentum clearly on their side. It was up to the Knights to respond, but Nitti made sure to squash that, striking out the next three Knight batters in a row.
“I was pitching very good, Coach Dahl told me to push off the mound and I did that and kept throwing strikes,” said Nitti. “I was pretty comfortable on the mound and got my rhythm. I’m confident out there. I just want to get them out however I can. We came back with my big hit too. I was thinking I could score but Coach Dahl told me to stay at third.”
The Hurricanes continued where they left off and took the lead after scoring three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Will Ellsworth doubled to start the Canes at-bats. He along with Will Spignese and Nathan Boaz would all score runs with an error in the outfield assisting them, giving the Hurricanes the 8-7 lead heading into the last inning.
The Knights were now down to their last three outs needing a run to tie. A walk to Gio Pacheco gave them a chance but Nitti, in his third inning of pitching, stuck out the next batter and forced a pop-out to first base for the second out.
Down to their last out, Camden Kazmierczek singled to left, Pacheco took off and headed to third. Starting Hurricanes pitcher’ Emmett Dahl was now in left, he fielded the ball and rifled a perfect throw to third that caught Pacheco for the game ending out and the Hurricanes 8-7 comeback win.
“I was thinking I can’t hit my cutoff, that would take too long so I just threw it to third because I knew the person at third could really catch and he’s going catch it and tag him out, so I just threw it there and he made the out,” said happy Emmett. “On the mound I was throwing strikes, but the people were just hitting them.”
Other Hurricanes adding to the winning effort are Mason Richard, Patrick Sorich and Matthew Moog.
The Knights showed a lot of talent on their team with Grayson Piscitelli leading the effort. His hitting and pitching is an example of the talent in Northlake baseball.
Piscitelli had two hits including a 3-run homerun and a single and gave his all on the mound.
“When I was hitting, I think I did pretty good,” said Grayson. “When I hit it, I was thinking I was going to get a homerun. That was my 13th homerun, I like being the big stick on my team. I was pitching good, but they were hitting the ball good. You have to practice to get better.”
Also giving their all for the Knights were LeAndro Murillo, James and Zachary Olsenand Ethan Otero